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National Rural Assembly Presents "Building Civic Courage" May 21 - 23

You don’t have to live in low-population areas to participate in the 2018 National Rural Assembly’s Building Civic Courage event May 21st - 23rd in Durham, North Carolina. The theme of this year’s theme is “Building Civic Courage” and several experts in broadband, including our Christopher Mitchell, will be speaking at the event. You can still register online.

About the National Rural Assembly

The Assembly seeks to strengthen America by improving the current and future situations in rural areas. People and organizations that belong to the Assembly hail from all sectors, including grassroots groups, state and regional organizations, and national associations. There are more than 500 individuals and organizations that belong to the National Rural Assembly. They describe their purpose as:

The purpose the Assembly is to build a common, community-focused rural agenda based on participation of local, state, regional, and national rural leaders; empower rural leaders and their allies to educate policy makers about this agenda; and raise the national visibility of rural issues.

2018 Event

The Assembly describes the event:

The focus of this meeting will be how we build a more inclusive nation, viewed through a lens of civic courage. We'll explore a number of questions, such as: What does civic courage look like? Why is civic courage important for achieving policy change? How are rural people strengthening our democracy? How do we amplify wise, diverse, and informed rural voices in ways that promote better policies?

The Assembly always works on the issue of better connectivity in less-populated areas. This year’s event will continue to focus on better Internet access and how it affects rural Americans. One of the many break-out sessions at the event will be on Tuesday, May 22nd, and starts at 2:30 p.m. The Rural Broadband Policy Group, which is part of the Assembly, will sponsor the session titled “Rural Broadband in Our Sights.”

In addition to Christopher, Allie Bohm from Public Knowledge and Cheryl DeBerry of Garrett County Economic Development in Maryland will present:

Please join us at Rural Assembly for a breakout session on rural broadband access. We will be talking about various ways of deploying high speed internet to rural areas; the policy, economic, and technological barriers to deployment; ways of overcoming those barriers; and how you can get involved in bringing reliable broadband internet to your community. The breakout will include speakers from Public Knowledge, the Institute for Local Self Reliance; and Garrett County (MD) Economic Development.

If you listen to our podcast, you might remember Cheryl from episode 275. She spent some time describing how the rural community is using fiber and white spaces to bring Internet access to homes and businesses that couldn't get service from the national ISPs.

While you’re at the event, check out some of the other presentations that will cover issues such as voting rights, the influence of women in rural communities, citizenship, the role of centers of worship in rural communities, and many other topics. You can review the detailed agenda and learn more about the breakout sessions on the event website. You can also learn about the speakers.

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Random Quote

In 1868, the railroad bypassed Forestville, Minn., and the town died. The decline came slowly, and over time my distant relatives, Thomas and Mary Meighen, saw the town dwindle and people move away. They were left in an empty town with their farm and a general store attached to their home. Farmworkers, paid in "chits" to spend in that store, kept it open until 1908, when business in it came to a screeching halt as Thomas abruptly closed up shop — the last business in Forestville — with all the merchandise inside...

What happens to your town if it's bypassed by high-speed broadband like Forestville was by the railroad in 1868?